Traffic cones are used on roadways to visually alert motorists to the presence of construction, to delineate or separate moving lanes of traffic from roadside work zones, to close off particular street regions to traffic, or the like. Typically such cones are used as temporary traffic control devices and placed by crews on the roadway to provide guidance to motorists.
The cones themselves are generally of a common design having a rectangular base and a centrally positioned tapering cone extending from the base to the top. These cones are made of an elastomer composition which is flexible but has sufficient rigidity so that the cone maintains its configuration. However, such cones when exposed to roadway temperatures over 100 degrees F., become very flexible and difficult to handle due to the increased flexibility without compromising the ability to maintain their configuration when set on a roadway. It is not uncommon for temperatures on roadways where cones are used, to hit temperatures in ranges of 120 degrees F. in the summer time, sharply increasing their flexibility.
Known prior art cone distributing and collecting devices include U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,054,648; 5,244,334; 4,747,525; 5,213,464; 6,726,344 and U.S. Design Pat. 254,429.
Normally a supply of such traffic cones is carried on a truck or similar vehicle. Often such traffic cones are manually deposited or placed upon a particular roadway by workmen who place the individual traffic cones on a roadway, by hand, from a supply of such cones carried on the vehicle, as the vehicle is driven along the roadway. Such workmen place the individual traffic cones upon the roadway surface at predetermined spaced intervals along the particular route being traveled by the truck or vehicle. For example see U.S. Pat. No. 6,364,400, issued to Unrath, illustrating a vehicle with special platforms for personnel to stand when manually placing cones on a roadway. From such a platform a worker can also pick up cones from a roadway when the construction or other work is completed or stopped.
Since the manual distribution of traffic cones and the manual collection of traffic cones is labor intensive and typically requires crews of three or more workers, an automated system for the placing of such cones on a roadway and to collect of the cones after the construction is completed or stopped, is sought to eliminate the expense of multiple workers hand placing or collecting traffic cones on a roadway.
When manually handling the traffic cones, workers are placed in dangerous situations which can be eliminated if such cone handling is accomplished by an automated mechanisms. Incidents, during manual traffic cone placement, or collection, on roadways, include situations where workers have accidentally fallen from vehicles, been hit by motorists and/or suffered back strain. Some workers have suffered serious injuries, including fatal injuries.
These incidents are not entirely unanticipated in view of the fact that sometimes the cones are placed on the roadway while the worker's vehicle is moving alongside oncoming or passing motorists in adjacent traffic lanes.
Moreover a truck or vehicle used to distribute or collect the cones, may undergo unexpected movements, such as change in direction, braking or acceleration which further subjects the personnel on vehicles distributing the cones, or collecting them, to unanticipated forces. In addition changes in weather, such as a thunder storm, can add slippery conditions creating an increased risk of accidents when manually handling such cones.
Based on the forging factors there remains a strong need to find ways to automate the distribution of traffic cones and the collection of the same, without personnel manually doing these chores. Some prior art system developed for this purpose, which have numerous problems, are the automated systems proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,244,334 issued to Akita et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,213,464 issued to Nicholson et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,054,648 issued-to Luoma, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,056,498 issued to Velinsky et al.
As indicated the typical traffic cones are constructed of elastomer which is flexible, but yet sufficiently rigid to maintain the shape of the traffic cone. Due to these characteristics it is very difficult to manipulate such cones with automatic systems, such as those described above. Manipulation of the cones in automated machines is compounded by normal wear and tear of the cones, along with the fact that elastomers used in construction of the traffic cones tend to have high frictional interaction with prior art mechanical devices employed to handle them. Further the flexibility of the cones increase as the temperatures increase adding additional complexity to controlling them in automated machines.
Due to these cone characteristics, problems have occurred in attempts to automate the distribution, and collection of such cones, from jams, hang ups, and similar malfunctions. Thus many prior art automated systems have failed to deliver the anticipated savings expected from automation.
A need continues to exist in the art for an improved, more reliable, system or apparatus for depositing traffic cones onto roadway surfaces, and collection of the cones therefrom, wherein workmen will be not exposed to the dangers noted or those associated with oncoming or parallel vehicle traffic.